An Enchanted Place

seek shelter

beneath broad leaves

find renewal

I’ve loved the tree house tree from the moment we moved into our new house. At first, though, we had no idea what sort of tree it actually was. Generally, I’d simply admire the way the evening light lit the leaves.

During July, however, we were given a few more clues to its identity. Blossom! At first it looked like a popcorn tree as white buds exploded into existence. Soon these buds opened up and covered the tree with beautiful white blossoms. A Google search for July flowering trees allowed us to finally identify it as a Catalpa, or Indian Bean Tree. This is actually a type of tree native to the Eastern United States and introduced to the UK in 1726. They’re not particularly long lived – the oldest known UK specimen is a 150-year-old in a Reading churchyard. As they take 20-50 years to reach their full growth of 10-15 meters, I’d say that ours is possibly now in, or at least nearing, its later years.

I’m now in my final few days of CampNaNoWriMo, with only a last few thousand words to write, so hopefully I’ll be back to a more complete blogging schedule soon.